Soviet children’s books and posters owe a great deal of their inimical look and sound to the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930). Mayakovsky was the most prominent of many avant-garde artists who, driven by ideological commitment and financial exigency, transformed the popular media landscape of Russia over the course of the 1920s. The goal was agitating for reform, both of social institutions and individual consciousness, and the means Mayakovsky found was a singularly brash and vivid combination of invention, abstraction, humor, and intelligence. Under his pen Russian poetry began to speak with a more flexible and expressive (even anarchic) play of sound and rhythm. The prolific Agniia Barto spoke for many when she identified her discovery of Mayakovsky’s poetry as the “pivotal moment” in her own development as a children’s writer.

Mayakovsky, a trained artist, instigated the cartoon-like posters. Christened Okna Rosta (“Windows of ROSTA,” the Russian Telegraph Agency), they filled empty shop windows during the devastating Civil War. Using simple stenciled forms and sharp rhymes, a team of artists and poets attacked the enemies of the young Soviet state and extolled the virtues of peasants and workers. One of Mayakovsky’s closest collaborators for the posters was Vladimir Lebedev (1891-1967), who later became an illustrator of children’s books, including many by Samuil Marshak. In subsequent years Mayakovsky remained open to exploring new applied uses for his poetry, from advertising and sloganeering to pedagogical works for children.

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